Music, Experience, and Affect

This chapter explores the relationship between emotions and music. It argues that of all the various affective states that music can arouse, none is more important than the emotions. To the degree that music affects moods, these are less likely than emotions to be remembered (since intense affective reactions are remembered better), and will have a weaker impact on subsequent behaviour. The chapter highlights a distinction of key importance for the field, which may be traced to ancient Greece and is encountered in both Western and non-Western cultures. On the one hand, a person may simply perceive (or recognize) a certain emotion ‘expressed’ or ‘represented’ in the music. On the other hand, a person may actually feel an emotion.